Book Review: Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson

Today I review Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe, the brand new Christmas romance from best-selling author Debbie Johnson and the follow up to ‘Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe’. My first festive read of the year couldn't have been better:

Blurb: Becca Fletcher hates Christmas so much, she’s considering getting ‘Bah Humbug!’ tattooed on her forehead. She has her reasons for being Little Miss Grinch; Reasons that make this the very worst time of year for her.

Now, though, she can’t avoid her version of ho-ho-hell – because she’s travelling to the Comfort Food Cafe to spend the festive season with her sister Laura, and her family. She’s expecting mulled wine, the smell of pine trees, 24-hour Christmas movie marathons and all kinds of very merry torture.

But little does Becca know that the Comfort Food Cafe is like no other place on earth. Perched on a snow-covered hill on a windswept bay, it’s a place full of friendship; a place where broken hearts can heal, and a place where new love can blossom. It’s a place where Becca’s Christmas miracle really could happen – if only she can let it…

Inviting readers new and old to pull up a cosy armchair, Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe is the novella-length follow-up to the 2016 best-seller Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe.

Review: this summer I had the pleasure of reading Summer at the Comfort Food Cafe andI fell completely in love with this cafe and its lively community. So when Debbie Johnson announced she was writing a Christmas novella, I was over the moon. This time the story was all about Becca, Laura's sister. We only met her via phone this summer so I was really curious to know more about her. And if you haven't read the summer part (which I highly recommend), you can easily read this one as it has its own stand-alone story.

The story starts when Laura and Becca were little kids and we read about their Christmases back then. I really enjoyed this part as we get a clear image of how these characters were back then and gives us the perfect background to understand them better as adults. When we fast-forward to the present, Becca, who we now know is not the biggest fan of Christmas, is about to join her sister at the Comfort Food Cafe for the first time to spend Christmas with her and her family. The cafe is like a sanctuary for Laura, it's the place where she found herself again so she hopes it will help Becca too. But Becca is more than OK with her current life. She has demons from the past but she has get used to them by now and is in no rush to change anything, or so she thinks.

I really enjoyed getting to know Becca. She was difficult to love sometimes but I couldn't help but care for her. Once again, Debbie Johnson has created a story with so much heart. It has a greater depth that really gets to you and all the Christmas elements just add a touch of magic that complement the main story perfectly. It was also great to catch up with the characters from the previous book.

My only complain is that this is a novella and not a full book! And I hope we'll revisit the Comfort Food Cafe again in the future.

All in all, I can't recommend this story enough. Perfect to enjoy on a crispy afternoon with a delicious hot chocolate (with marshmallows!). I'm sure you'll fall in love with the cafe and all its regulars too.

Rating: 5 stars

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*